Confusion seems to be reigning supreme after Zimbabwe and China failed to agree on two distinct occasions on the number of coronavirus kits which were donated by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma. The confusion between the two countries has now been termed typogate, as each country has been blaming typing errors for the discrepancy between the figures. Surprisingly, however, despite correcting the typing errors, the figures are still not adding up.

However, eagle-eyed social media users quickly noticed that there was a huge discrepancy in the number of protective suits. The Ministry of Health and Child Care’s number of 1000, was a massive 9 000 short of the number claimed by the Chinese Ambassador.

Social media quickly went into overdrive with people accusing the government of misappropriating the other 9 000 protective suits for their own benefit. Some even appealed to the Chinese government to take action against this blatant corruption.

However, a few hours later, the Ministry of Health and Child Care changed the figure to 10 000 claiming that they had made a typing error when they made the initial tweet. Said the Ministry,

Please note there was a typoThere’s a total of 10 000 Protective suits NOT 1000.

Unsurprisingly, most social media users did not believe them. Instead, they accused the Ministry of Health and Child Care of conducting damage limitation and of doing a shoddy job in hiding its corrupt activities.

However, worse was to come. Perhaps in an effort to spare their comrades some embarrassment, the Chinese Embassy in Zimbabwe decided to change its figures so that they could tally with the ones initially claimed by the Ministry of Health and Child. The Chinese Ambassador even went as far as deleting his original tweet.

Unfortunately, the two countries seem not to have coordinated their plans on how to address the embarrassing discrepancy. The Chinese then claimed that there were in fact only 1000 protective suits and not the 10 000 they had initially claimed. However, this correction came after the Ministry of Health had already changed its figures from 1000 to 10 000.

The Chinese Embassy continued insisting that there were only 1000 protective suits despite the fact that the Ministry of Health was now confirming receiving 10, 000 protective suits.

Correction: number of protective suits and face shields from Jack Ma to Zim is 1000, not 10,000. 20,000 test kits & 100,000 masks correct.
Sorry for mistake as we race against the clock to help Zim. More Chinese help on the way.

Correction: number of protective suits and face shields from Jack Ma to Zim is 1000, not 10,000. 20,000 test kits & 100,000 masks correct.
Sorry for mistake as we race against the clock to help Zim. More Chinese help on the way.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:Access LIVE News, Jobs and Exchange rates directly on WhatsApp. Send a WhatsApp message with the word HIE to +263718636522 or just CLICK HERE to try it out. iHarare is now a information one-stop-shop. Please click on the links highlighted in Red to access News, Events, Jobs, Pricecheck, Classifieds, Dating and Education services by iHarare.For any queries contact us by CLICKING HERE .